Imgur blocked in the UK

[RealOliveTraybake]

For all those applauding the online safety act in recent threads, AIBU to say they are reaping what they sow?

Imgur has just blocked all UK users from accessing it's site, and Imgur is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is Imgur?

It's been the defacto image sharing site for a decade or more. If you wanted to post an image to this thread you might use Imgur to upload it to and post the link it generates.

Much of the content you see on the internet will have images hosted on Imgur (which you now can't see)

What is the reason?

I’ve seen it used on Reddit. It’s mainly Americans who use it. How much should I care that I can’t see it?

There are tons of those type sites. People will just use another.

No no... people who can use Imgur and always have, will continue to use it.

And we'll no longer be able to see what they share.

For those who can still use it, they're unlikely to immediately switch to something everyone can see, it doesn't really affect them so they'll carry on.

Look forward to enjoying less communication, less of what people share (its probably only kittens or porn anyway though).

Exactly this. Imgur is by far the largest site of its kind, it's the first thing outside of porn that will have a real impact on people.

I'm not sure it will, I'm pretty sure 99% of the public will not notice as causal internet users I know use 3 basic websites these days, YouTube, Facebook and so on which don't use outside hosting.

More savvy internet users know how to use a VPN.

I thought Imgur was the assistant to Doctor Frankenstein? 🤔

Already I have malfunctioning (automated) work emails with images showing "this content is not available in your region". Imgur is used to host many images on other sites. UK based websites/content will adapt, everywhere else will leave us behind.

You have agency. Let the sender know you can’t see it and get them to send it another way. We’re not going to be “left behind” because an image hosting site doesn’t want to obey the law.

Why has it been blocked?

Well, I’m guessing but if Reddit is anything to go by Imgur must host a lot of porn some of which presumably falls foul of the UK’s Online Safety Act.

Bugger! Didn’t know they were going to do that.

Imgur isn’t ’porn and kittens’, it’s a photo sharing site with long term users who have a huge following for their daily photos of Japan, or of their images while driving Lorries all over the US, or of their pet, or of their own weight loss or any other random topic. There are people asking for, and receiving support on there.

A bit like Mumsnet isn’t ’recipes and nappies’.

The only place I’ve seen it is Reddit.
The point is it must be showing porn which breaches the Online Safety Act and which it can’t be bothered to remove otherwise it wouldn’t have to withdraw from the UK. It’s not commonly used in the UK where none of us are “driving Lorries all over the US”.

This. Never heard of it.

Can't say I'm surprised though. It was predicted some sites would do this.

By blocked do you mean blocked subject to providing age verification? If so, why not just provide age verification?

Who cares? It's not true that most of the content of the Internet hosts pictures in that site. In fact, it's a blatant lie.

Wikipedia has also been impacted by this badly thought out act

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr11qqvvwlo

The Tories made a massive mistake when writing it, and Starmer for not cancelling it.

Because it's expensive, likely to be hacked, and easy to bypass.

I've just come up against this on a Reddit thread with a screencapped gif showing how to do something on a bit of software. In this particular instance I was able to use https://archive.ph/ to recover the content, but it does add an annoying extra step. (And it may not work in every case).

Don't forget that on Mumsnet you can click on the 'add image' or 'add gif' buttons to upload pictures directly here.

• Original imgur link: https://imgur.com/65tkEVi
• Which comes from this Reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Inkscape/comments/16eea94/comment/jzzr936/
• Archived imgur link: https://archive.ph/zP3Ww

Jo

So some skeevy foreign company is making too much money peddling pornography to kids to take basic safeguarding measures, and apparently we're supposed to think this is the government's fault?

This imgur? Is it not just tit for tat?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced it has launched three investigations looking into how TikTok, forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur are protecting the privacy of child users in the UK.

www.lbc.co.uk/article/investigations-launched-into-tiktok-reddit-imgur-child-privacy-concerns-5HjczzC_2/

😂

It probably hasn't been blocked by the UK, but rather the site themselves will have geolocked the website; I suspect the reason will be that it is not cost effective for them to implement the security checks that the UK requires of it and not locking out UK users means that the website owner would be liable for hefty fines if UK users access the site without those checks in place.